Pitch

CHAPTER ONE

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful girl. The beautiful girl had two parents who loved her and an older sister who doted on her. She had a golden retriever named Buddy who knew all kinds of tricks. She lived in a perfect house on a perfect street in a perfect neighborhood. The beautiful girl got all straight A’s in school and wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up. She was captain of the varsity soccer team and cheerleading squad. She had a handsome boyfriend named Todd and she was always very, very happy.

Yeah, that girl is not me. My name is Lola. My parents are divorced. My older sister hates my guts, and my dog got run over by a car two weeks ago.

After the big D my mom moved across the country to California and got married six months later to some guy who rides a motorcycle and has a fu Manchu (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a really stupid looking mustache). I decided to stay with my dad in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.

We lived in a crappy apartment building on the wrong side of town. Big Sis went with Mom to California and I haven’t heard from her since. I’ve never had a boyfriend. I don’t play sports. The last time I got anything close to an A was in seventh grade English, and that’s only because I sat next to Patricia Clark, the smartest girl in the entire school.

But this story isn’t about me. This story is about them. The Drinkers.

No one knows where they came from. Not exactly. Our government blamed the terrorists. The terrorists blamed the government. The government blamed the Jesus freaks. The Jesus freaks blamed the sinners. The sinners blamed the hippies. The hippies blamed the owners of gas guzzling SUVs. The owners of gas guzzling SUVs didn’t blame anyone due to the fact that they were the first to die. Turns out gas guzzling SUVs can’t go very far before they run out of gas. Go figure.

Personally, I am of the opinion that the Drinkers have always been here. Lurking in the shadows. Biding their time. Waiting for just the right moment to strike.

Curiously enough, they decided on a Tuesday in the middle of August to destroy mankind. Just a normal day like any other. No holiday to speak of. Nothing to make the date significant. At least not then. Now we call it Death Day, but before that was just plain old Tuesday, the seventeenth of August.

I wish I could say I was doing something life changing on the day the world came crashing down. Saving a life. Coming up with a cure for cancer. Rescuing a cat from a tree. Instead I was stealing a car.

“Lola, are you sure you want to do this?” Travis, my best friend and reluctant partner in crime, peeked over the top of the dumpster we were huddled behind and ducked back down. “I think it’s a bad idea.”

I glanced at him sideways. Tall and thin with bright red hair, brown eyes, and crooked teeth Travis hadn’t exactly won the genetics lottery. He was a geek of the first order, but he was my geek and so I tolerated his chicken shit ways. Most of the time.

“Don’t be a p-wussy,” I said, amending my word choice at the last minute. Travis was wound up so tight that any cursing would send him right over the edge. I reached across the gravel between us and patted his hand reassuringly. “It will be fine. It’s not as if we’re taking the car anywhere. We’re just starting it.”

“But why?” he said miserably.

“Because we can.” It was my new mantra for everything. Why steal one of my dad’s cigarettes and smoke it out behind the apartment even though it made me sick? Because I can. Why toilet paper Missy the cheerleader’s house even though we used to be best friends in the fifth grade? Because I can. Why make out with bad boy Everett James in the boy’s locker room at school even though he sucked at kissing and tried to feel up my boobs? Because I can.

“Come on,” I said, grabbing Travis’s arm and hauling him to his feet. “We have to go now, before the street lights kick on.”

The car I had decided to hot wire was located on a quiet suburban street ten blocks away from my suck ass apartment complex. Here the sidewalks were litter free and every lawn in front of the copy cat houses was mowed to perfection. Even the garbage bin we were hiding behind smelled nice. Like Chinese food and Febreze. I took a deep sniff as we slowly edged out to the street and my empty stomach growled in reply.

“Shhh!” Travis hissed.

“I can’t help it if I’m starving.”

“What! We just ate, like, half an hour ago.”

“I didn’t eat that much,” I protested.

“You had two cheeseburgers, an extra large fry, and a milkshake!”

I elbowed him in the ribs. “What are you, the food police? You know I have a fast metabolism.”

He muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘pig’ before he clamped his mouth shut. I let the insult pass. I have plenty of problems, but body image isn’t one of them. I am more than content with my height to weight ratio. I’ve always been able to eat whatever I wanted without having to worry about adding extra pounds. Just lucky, I guess. That’s me. Queen of Luck.

Pulling my phone out of the back pocket of my jeans I consulted it one last time. It was surprisingly easy to find out how to hot wire a car on the internet. One site even had step by step instructions complete with pictures. “You have the screw driver and wire strippers?” I asked Travis. He reached behind him to pat the orange backpack he had slung over both shoulders. “Okay,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “Let’s do this.”

Two weeks ago we had picked out the car. It belonged to a man who lived in the third house down on the left, a split level rancher with scary little garden gnomes scattered all over the lawn. According to his mailbox his name was Mr. Livingston. He drove a 2003 black Toyota Corolla. According to Kelly Blue Book it got thirty five miles to the gallon and was a top safety pick. Whatever the hell that meant.

Side by side Travis and I walked down the sidewalk, trying our best to look like two regular teenagers out for a stroll at eight thirty on a Tuesday night. From somewhere across the street a dog was barking. A woman yelled and the dog shut up. Halfway to Mr. Livingston’s driveway a car pulled up behind us. I felt Travis tense and tightened my grip on his arm. The car’s lights flashed as it swung wide into the other lane and shot past, tires squealing.

“Jackass,” I said.

“Do you think they know what we’re doing?” Travis asked nervously. The poor guy was already sweating bullets. I squeezed his arm.

“Calm down. This will be fun.”

“Fun?” he squeaked. “You think stealing a car is fun?”

I sighed. “Need I remind you that you agreed to this over a month ago? And besides, we’re not stealing. We’re just… starting. It’s not like we’re going to drive it anywhere.” Probably not, I added silently.

“What if we get caught?”

“Then I’ll take the all the blame, just like I told you yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. You know Travis if you didn’t want to come you didn’t have to. I’m not twisting your arm or anything.”

“Uh,” he said. “You kind of are.”

I looked down to where my fingers were making little red marks on his skin and immediately let go. “Oh. Sorry.”

He rubbed his arm and managed a weak smile. “It’s okay. A little nervous too, huh?”

“I’m not nervous,” I scoffed. “This is going to be easy.”

“Yeah, that’s what everyone sitting in jail said too.”

I shot him The Look. He made The Face but stopped talking. We walked right past Mr. Livingston’s driveway, just like we planned, and went to the next street up before we turned around and walked back down. Two teenagers. Out for a stroll. Dressed all in black. Nothing suspicious here.

The Toyota was sitting right in the middle of the short, slightly sloped driveway. I slinked up to the driver’s side and Travis hovered just over my right shoulder, his breath hot on my neck.

“Okay,” I said, mostly to myself. “Okay. First step is to get into the car without setting off the alarm. Travis, hand me the wedge and the coat hanger.” I held out my hand expectantly. Flexed my fingers. “Travis? Travis!”

“I don’t think it’s locked,” he whispered. “The little nub is up.”

“Of course it’s locked. What idiot doesn’t lock their car?”

“We’re not on the West side, Lola. No one locks their cars here.”

I clenched my teeth and counted to three. “Travis, just give me the damn wedge and -”

Instead Travis reached past me and opened the door. His teeth flashed white in the encroaching darkness. “See?” he said triumphantly. “Told you.”

I bumped him out of the way with my hip. “Whatever. So Mr. Livingston is an idiot. It’s not as if he – damn it!” I cursed.

“What? What? What is it? Is someone coming?” Travis flattened himself against the side of the car and dropped to the ground. It would have been funny if I wasn’t so angry.

“He left the keys in the ignition!” Stupid yuppie East siders. They deserved to have their cars stolen.

“That’s too bad,” said Travis, making no attempt to disguise his relief. He stood up and made a grab for my elbow. I snatched my arm out of reach.

“No,” I said stubbornly. “We’re not leaving yet.”

“Lola… If you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking -”

“I think we said we were going to steal a car,” I interrupted. “And that is exactly what we’re going to do. Now get in.”

“Get in?” he gaped. “Uh uh. No way. You said we were just going to hot wire it, not drive it. You promised.”

I felt an irrational surge of anger. This wasn’t turning out anything like I thought it would. We were supposed to break in the car, start it, and drive off into the sunset like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Why? Because I can.

Except now the car wasn’t locked, the stupid keys were in it, and my partner in crime had turned chicken.

Flipping my long hair behind my shoulder I slid smoothly into the front seat and turned the key. The car started with a quiet purr and my anger kicked over to adrenaline. It pumped through my veins, a better high than any stupid cigarette could give me.

Rolling down the window I leaned out and grinned at Travis who stared down at me in slack jawed disbelief. “Want to go for a ride, sugar?” I said in my best southern drawl.

“No.”

“Get in, Travis.” It wasn’t a request.

“We are so going to jail,” he whimpered before he ran around the back of the car and more or less fell into the passenger seat. I grinned recklessly as I put the car in reverse and started to glide down the driveway.

“They don’t put straight A students with full scholarships to Princeton in jail, my friend. You’re safe.”

“I don’t want you to go to jail either,” he said.

I glanced over at him. His face was white as a sheet and he had both hands braced against the dash board, but he was doing it. He was here. I sighed. Damn it.

“What are you doing?” he asked as I tapped the brakes and slid the car into drive at the bottom of the driveway. “Lola? What’s going on?”

“We drove a stolen car, didn’t we?” I said, beyond disgruntled. “Now we’re putting it back. Safe and sound. You can add it to your -”

A huge crash from inside the house cut me off mid sentence. Heart pounding, I pulled the car back up to exactly where it was before and killed the engine. Travis and I hunched low in our seats. I saw the whites of his eyes flash as he turned his head to look at me.

“What was that?” he hissed.

“Why are you asking me?”

“We have to get out of here. We have to run. We have to run away and never say a word about this to anyone.”

I sucked on the inside of my cheek, considering our options before I said, “We can’t go yet.”

“Why not?” he demanded.

“Because, dummy, if we open up the doors the little lights will go on and he’ll know we’re out here.” It wasn’t something I had thought about until just this minute. I guess part of me always imagined that Mr. Livingston of 233 Turner Street wouldn’t be home when we tried to steal his car. A stupid presumption, since if he was gone chances were he would have taken his car with him.

I sat up just enough to see the front of the house. None of the lights were on, which was weird, because I knew I had heard something fall over inside. Maybe he had a dog. Or a giant cat. Maybe he wasn’t even home.

“What are you waiting for? Just turn the lights off,” said Travis.

I drew in a deep breath. I had really been hoping to avoid this part. “I kind of… uh… don’t know how.”

“Lola,” he said in an oddly strained voice. “What are you talking about?”

Oh boy. “I’ve never exactly driven a car before and I don’t know where the switch is,” I admitted. Honestly, it was a miracle I had gotten it down the driveway without hitting something. Travis should have been happy.

Silence. And then…

“WHAT?”

“Shut up!” In the darkness I found his mouth and slapped my hand over it. It was a good thing it was dark inside the car so Travis couldn’t see my face was the approximate color of a tomato. “I wasn’t planning on actually driving it anywhere,” I said. “Are you going to be quiet now?”

He shook his head, which I took to mean ‘yes’, and I slowly withdrew my hand.

“You’re insane,” he said the second his mouth was uncovered. “Absolutely nuts. You told me you got your driver’s license six months ago.”

“I lied. I don’t even have my permit.”

“Don’t even… No permit… Crazy…” He continued to sputter out random words while I snuck another look at the house. Still no lights. That decided it. Mr. Livingston was either asleep or not home. A pet must have knocked something over which explained the loud noise. We were in the clear.

“Let’s go,” I said. I opened up the door and shut it silently behind me, holding extra long to the handle so there wasn’t even a click as it went back into place. The lights inside the car popped on, just like I thought they would. I glared at Travis through the window and tapped my wrist, a clear signal that time was ticking away.

Travis, being Travis, scrambled across the center console and spilled out of the driver’s side door. He landed hard on his hands and knees. Grabbing his elbow, I hauled him up to his feet. He dusted himself off and straightened up, still angry, but at least capable of talking coherently again.

“I hate you,” he said succinctly.

“Where is your backpack?” I asked, ignoring him.

His head swiveled around as he tried to look over his shoulder.

I sighed. “You left it in the car, didn’t you?”

“Shut up,” he mumbled.

“Go grab it. I’ll keep a look out. Then we are – did you hear that?” I broke off with a frown. I tilted my head to the side and closed my eyes, trying to pin point the direction of the sound.

“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”

“It sounded like… A cry for help,” I decided. My eyes opened. I frowned at Travis. “You really didn’t hear that?”

“I told you I didn’t hear -”

But Travis never got finish what he going to say as a blood curdling scream the likes of which I had never heard outside of a horror movie tore through the night.